Airlines to put fares on websites

Beginning December 8, you will know how much you have to pay for a ticket depending on when you book it — 21 days in advance, 14 days, seven days, one day, ten hours.

“In all there are 14 buckets and the airline needs to specify fares for each and also for each class,” Directorate General of Civil Aviation officials said.

On the first day of each month, airlines will furnish a copy of the tariff they would charge, route-wise, date-wise, across its network in various fare categories to DGCA and also provide the same information on their website.

This is being seen as a victory for the aviation ministry and a huge relief for passengers, with domestic airlines agreeing to play by the rules.

Airlines have been given time till 5 pm on Wednesday to comply with the DGCA directive, to which they have agreed. Making airlines fall in line was tough and the ministry itself admitted this on Monday saying response of airlines to the DGCA notice of November 17 was “not satisfactory” and “the increase in tariff continued.”

Civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi and DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan played a key role in ensuring operators toed the line, a senior official said.

“Close watch will continue to be maintained by the DGCA and airlines should not resort to any unreasonable and excessive increases in their tariffs,” the ministry said.

“There is no case of capping airfare in a liberalised environment, be it at upper or lower band,” Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya told reporters. “It is a function of demand and supply. It is not exploitation by the airlines.”